Quite often a new plough is put through a little ritual before its first use. Similarly, during the Tihar feast, the plough is the only farm implement that is being venerated. It is decorated with a flower wreath and a tika good-luck tag; in the Sallyan, Rolpa and Jajarkot regions the masters of the house take off the plough-share and fill the slade slot with rice.
2.
A. de Sales, Je suis né de vos jeux de tambours, Nanterre, 1991, p. 93.
3.
See M. Oppitz , Frau für Fron, Frankfurt , 1988.
4.
J. Kawakita, The Hills Magars and Their Neighbours, Tokyo, 1974, p. 345. To relativize this statement it should be noted that the thum comprise lands of very different sizes depending on the region. In Gulmi they are very large and correspond to those of the ancient kingdoms, and perhaps this explains why they do not have the same rituals.
5.
A. de Sales (note 2 above).
6.
J. Kawakita (note 4 above), p. 369.
7.
At the village level, the reforms of the Panchayats involved a rearrangement of the ancient lands of the mukhiya chiefs into larger areas called Gaun Panchayat. Moreover, a person elected by means of the universal suffrage (the Prandhan) replaced the traditional village chiefs whose authority was hereditary.
8.
M. Lecomte-Tilouine , "About Bhume. A Misunderstanding in the Himalayas ," in: G. Toffin (ed.), Nepal. Past and Present, Paris, 1993, pp. 127-34.
9.
If the authority of the king in the territories he controlled militarily was not being challenged, his possession of land put him among the Brahmins in Indian history. According to R.C.P. Singh (Kingship in Northern India, New Delhi, 1968, pp. 101-10), the Visvakarman Bhauvana myth offers a Brahmin representation of the land that stood opposite to the pretensions of the king.
10.
Y. Naraharinath (ed.), Gorkha Vamshavali, Benares, p. 101.
11.
Ph. Sagant , "Le double pouvoir chez les Yakhthumba," in: G. Krauskopff and M. Lecomte-Tilouine (eds.), Célébrer le pouvoir. Dasain, une fête royale au Népal, Paris, 1996.
